Well, I know you don't want to hear it, but place_meeting IS your best code representation.
The x and y arguments are used to establish relative placement. The program isn't looking at just the one point to determine if a collision is happening; it actually places the object's collision mask at that location and then determines if there is a collision.
But if you are dead seat on not using place_meeting, you could instead use functions like collision_line, collision_rectangle, collision_circle, and the like. Those functions look for collisions in specific regions regardless of the object's collision mask and location. The "other" keyword is also not nearly as reliable when used in such situations.